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Topic: Pizza Hut Pan Pizza (Read 141462 times)

Tom Lehmann often instructs the posters at the PMQ Think Tank to let their doughs temper AT room temperature rather than TO room temperature. As you will see from his PMQTT post at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7271&p=48918&hilit=#p48918, he even capitalizes the AT and TO just as I did. Quite often the room temperature in a particular situation is in the right range for tempering but you can imagine how letting a dough rise to a temperature of 90 degrees F (which is quite common near an oven in a pizzeria) or to a temperature of 60 degrees F (which might prevail in someone's kitchen in the dead of winter) would be unlikely to produce the desired outcomes.

Thanks for the info Peter. I have recently changed my mind about the possibility of proofing in an hours time. I now do a proof at room temp rather than to room temps myself. Because I'm making higher hydration doughs these days, I have an easier time handling cool dough as oppose to room temp dough. I also didn't mean to imply that yeast is soley responsible for oven spring. I only noted exhaustion of the dough since I have noticed that I get flatter pies if I cold ferment or proof to long. I am aware that moisture and ultimately steam plays a large role in oven spring. It is fascinating to note that oven spring can be achieved without the use of yeast though.

I guess when I originally posted this topic I should have given a little more background and more information in general... hind sight is 20/20... so here is my attempt in that direction.

If you have any questions... please ask...

I manage a Pizza Hut back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. When I first worked there, we only sold Thin' N Crispy and Pan pizza. So that is all have direct knowledge of. When I first started we only made Thin' N Crispy pizzas... and the Pan pizza was introduced while I was working there.

I did not write down the recipes that we used to make the dough... but we did make the dough from scratch in the store every day.

I did not know that there was a difference in flours and so I did not even pay any attention to the types of flour that was used. I do know that Pan pizza flour is different from Thin' N Crispy flour because when the Pan pizza was rolled out we were instructed to NEVER use Thin' N Crispy flour for Pan pizza... even if we ran out.

So I don't know anything about the frozen disks that I guess PH makes their Pan pizza from today. I suspect that they went that route to keep their recipes more under lock and key than when I worked there.

The Pan pizza was for all intents and purposes a fried pizza... which you have no doubt surmised by the quantity of oil that was used in the bottom of each pan.

I do remember a couple of things that stood out when they rolled out the Pan pizza. The first thing I mentioned already and that is that the flour was different from the Thin' N Crispy flour. The second thing was the "additions" to the Pan pizza dough that was not in the Thin' N Crispy dough. I noticed these because I had made so many batches of Thin' N Crispy dough that when they told us what was in the Pan pizza dough... it just stuck out like a sore thumb. The items that they added were; sugar and nonfat dry milk.

So if you see a recipe for Thin' N Crispy dough with sugar in it... it is wrong (at least it is not a PH Thin' N Crispy recipe from the late 70's and early 80's)... or if you see a Pan dough recipe without sugar and nonfat dry milk in it... it is wrong... at least not of the late 70's/early 80's vintage.

I remember that the Thin' N Crispy dough was a fairly dry dough. Often times it would not even have collected all of the flour into the dough ball... there would always be some dry crumbs (my words... probably not the technical terms...) which you would just include in the food grade 40 Gal can with food liner.

I say all of that about the Thin' N Crispy dough... mainly to point out that the Pan dough was different... again... so it stood out.

The Pan dough ball had completely incorporated all of the flour into the dough ball. So the Pan pizza dough was a much more like what you would normally think a dough would be like.

The Pan dough we would take out of the mixer (big Hobart floor standing mixer) and portion them (weigh them) and put them through the top part of our dough sheeter (of a 2 part dough sheeter). If I had to guess... I'd say that it would take the dough and make it to be about 3/4 of an inch think. Then we would stretch it to be more round (because it would come out of the dough sheeter being oblong-ed) and place it into an oiled pan. These would sit on the counter (room temperature) until the dough had risen to be about 1 1/2 inches thick. Once they had risen we would put them into the reach-in refrigerator. We would only make enough Pan pizza dough that we would use that day... because at the end of the day we would throw out whatever Pan pizza dough we had not used.

Welcome back. A lot of our members owe you for the success they have enjoyed with your PH pan pizza recipe.

The last PH ingredients list I have seen is the 2008 document at http://www.pizzahut.com/Files/PDF/PIZZA%20HUT%20INGREDIENT%20STATEMENTS%202008.pdf. If you look at the ingredients list for the Pan Dough, you can tell that the dough is frozen because the yeast is very high up in the list. That means that PH is using more yeast than any other ingredient other than the flour and water. The reason for using much more yeast is because yeast cells are destroyed by freezing. So, to compensate for that loss, they just use a lot more yeast. That moves the yeast high up in the list. Some of the chemical-sounding ingredients in the Pan Dough list are also often used to make frozen doughs. You will also note that whey is now used in the PH Pan Dough.

If you look at the ingredients list for the Thin 'N Crispy Dough, you will see that there is no sugar, as was the case during your PH tenure, and also that the yeast is in its normal position near the bottom of the ingredients list. That tells us that the Thin 'N Crispy crusts are made in the normal manner, and are most likely par-baked crusts. Those crusts can be frozen for delivery to their stores, where they can be defrosted/refrigerated for use in filling orders. I might be wrong on this, but I do not believe that Thin 'N Crispy Doughs are made fresh in the PH stores anymore. I understand that PH is using fresh doughs in some of their stores outside of the U.S., such as in Malaysia and the Phillipines.

· In a stand mixer (KitchenAid) fitted with a dough hook, add the water, yeast and powdered milk. Run on stir or low speed until yeast has fully dissolved.· Mix the remaining dry ingredients together in a separate container and add them to the mixer while still on stir speed.· Switch to speed 2 or knead speed until most of the flour and water have mixed.· Add oil while the dough is still scrappy then it will quickly form a moist, smooth cohesive ball.· Knead on speed 2 for 10 minutes· Put 2 tablespoons of classico olive oil in the 10" pan to make sure that the oil completely covers the bottom.· After the dough has been kneaded for 10 minutes, remove it from the mixing bowl and roll it out to the diameter of the bottom of the pan press it into the pan stretching the dough with your finger tips trying not to get too much oil on the pan sides so the dough will stick better. Press the dough in place so the sides come up about 11/2"-2”· Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 2 hours on the counter then place the pan (still covered) into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (up to 24 hours).

WHEN READY TO MAKE

· Remove dough from the refrigerator two to three hours in advance then press down the bottom of the dough with your finger tip in a random fashion then using your fingers press the dough, flatting the sides in place.· After two or three hours, preheat oven to 450F. Add a half pound of mozzarella to the bottom, then topping of your choice then a cup of sauce with 1/2 of a small can of diced tomatoes well drained added, put that on top of the pizza.· Bake at 450 °F for 20 minutes.

The irony is that I actually prefer the Thin' N Crispy crust... and I have had one heck of a time trying to exactly duplicate it... but I'm back on the hunt and will let you know if I am able to duplicate it. I think my initial attempts have been quite a bit off from the science of flour, moisture and pizza dough... but I don't give up easily...

Randy, I'll have to give that a try some time... I've never tried to make a Chicago style pizza before but the Pan pizza dough would probably be really good dough for that...

Just a quick note after reading this thread (which has been informative to say the least) is about the question of weather or not to proof/double rise this dough. I think it's more of a question of crumb than it is flavor. Using a controlled rise will produce a nice flavor under most circumstances, but in this case the crumb has to be almost "just so". I am a huge fan of PH pan pizzas and the combination of light texture, medium to medium fine crumb and that perfectly fried finish is indeed it's own. I think if you try to make this guy w/ a single rise method the crumb will be too coarse and it just won't have that deep-fried twinkie kind of liteness that we all know and love ; ). One other thing to try too would be to use a high quality vegetable shortening rather than straight oil as it adheres up the sides of the pan at or below room temp and seems to give the sides of the crust about the same treatment as the bottom. Just my thoughts. Enjoy Everyone!

Every Pizza Hut Deep Pan Pizza dough I've seen shows oil in the recipe and when I made the dough at Pizza hut we didn't add any oil to the dough, only water and the powder they sent us. We however did add vegetable oil to the pan for cooking purposes (enough to coat the bottom of the pan with about 1/8 of an inch seemed a bit excessive to most of us working there) before adding the dough to the pan and placing it in the proofer at 95 degrees F for about 90 minutes and another 90 minutes in the refrigerator to cool. The cooling process was to make the dough firm for adding toppings to it otherwise the dough was thin in the middle. If you ever get the actual pans Pizza hut uses for pan dough you will see 2 lines on the inside of the pan that show where the dough should rise to during the proofing process. If I remember correctly it was 16 ounces of dough for a 12" pizza and 22 ounces for a 14 inch pizza rolled out evenly before being placed in the pan.

My other favorite dough is Stuffed Crust, however I've been a little bummed about finding a non commercial "garlic butter spray" that we used for spraying on the crust. Anyone have any ideas where to find something like that? Pam creates a butter spray, but doesn't taste the same as the garlic butter spray.

Lots of interesting stuff there, You are right that most dough is not made in the stores any more. However I do believe that some smaller towns still make the dough by hand because it saves them on their food cost. The cost of buying the frozen dough is prohibitive to some stores because they cannot keep their food cost under the specific gross sales percent that the companies would like them to have. I remember having to spend many hours preparing dough for the night shift, since all extra dough was thrown out for the next day per policy, however sometimes it got used on the buffet for the next morning. When I first started working at the particular Pizza Hut I worked at we had 2 sometimes 3 people preparing dough for the day because we were making the "Bigfoot" Pizza then which for some reason our town loved and others did not. We would go through a minimum of 100 of them a day where other towns wouldn't use 100 in a week. Now they have the "Dippers" which look like the same size as the Bigfoot. The Dippers looks more like a pan dough though where the Bigfoot was a hand tossed style dough. The difference being there were holes in the bottom of the pan for the Bigfoot and just sprayed with a food release product and the dippers appears to have oil in the pan causing the "fry bread" appearance and taste.

Can you tell us how long ago it was that you worked for PH and made their pan pizzas? The reason I ask is that some time ago I found a PH ingredients document, which I printed out for my own use, that showed oil in the dough. I did a Google search this morning and found the document (pdf) at http://www.espanol.pizzahut.com/menu/nutritioninfo/documents/ph_ingredients.pdf. That document is dated July 29, 2004. The ingredients for the pan pizza dough are set forth at page 4. One of the things I noticed in the ingredients list for the pan pizza dough is the omission of water. It is hard to say whether that was an omission or it was intentional (note that two of the other dough ingredients lists also omit the water). If it was intentional, that could suggest that the ingredients shown were part of a dry mix, hence the omission of the water. It is quite common to include a spray dried form of oil for such mixes. I can't say that that was what PH was using but it can't be ruled out as a possibility. It's also possible that the PH document mentioned above was for locations outside of the U.S. You will note, for example, the inclusion of the word "espanol" in the URL for the document.

Your information on the dough weights for the two size pizzas confirms what other former PH employees have stated on the forum.

Once you get to five posts, you should be able to include links in your posts.

Just a quick note after reading this thread (which has been informative to say the least) is about the question of weather or not to proof/double rise this dough. I think it's more of a question of crumb than it is flavor. Using a controlled rise will produce a nice flavor under most circumstances, but in this case the crumb has to be almost "just so". I am a huge fan of PH pan pizzas and the combination of light texture, medium to medium fine crumb and that perfectly fried finish is indeed it's own. I think if you try to make this guy w/ a single rise method the crumb will be too coarse and it just won't have that deep-fried twinkie kind of liteness that we all know and love ; ). One other thing to try too would be to use a high quality vegetable shortening rather than straight oil as it adheres up the sides of the pan at or below room temp and seems to give the sides of the crust about the same treatment as the bottom. Just my thoughts. Enjoy Everyone!

Funny you should mention that, because my local Pizza Hut always brushed shortening into the pan--while waiting for my pizza to get done, I always observed them brushing a white colored shortening or lard--never have I seen them pouring any oil!

Ever since then, I incorporate the same procedure on my double crust "Old Forge White Pizzas."

This is my first attempt at making a Pizza Hut pan pizza clone. I generally make New York-style pizzas but my family loves Pizza Hut. The recipe I used for this was the 22 ounce scaled version that Pete-zza calculated in another thread. My directions are as follows:

The yeast was added to the water and allowed to activate and dissolve for 10 minutes. Next, I mixed in the salt, sugar, and dry non-fat milk. This combination was poured into a KitchenAid mixer followed by flour and vegetable oil. After a 10 minute kneed using the hook attachment, I let the dough rest, covered, inside the mixing bowl for 10 minutes before rolling it out into a 12-inch circle. The dough was then placed into a Chicago Metallic Non Stick 14-Inch Deep Dish Pizza Pan (epicalien recommended this pan earlier in this thread) with 4 ounces of vegetable oil placed in the bottom. The top was covered using plastic wrap and the dough was proofed for 1 hour. Afterwards, I placed the dough into the refrigerator for approximately 12 hours. It was removed 2 hours before baking.

I preheated the oven to 500F with a FibraMent stone placed on the middle rack. Before topping, I slightly depressed the middle of the dough, leaving a 1 inch edge-crust. The pizza was topped with Jackie Tran's sauce recipe, which was a near-perfect imitation of Pizza Hut's. I used 2 cups of low moisture part skim mozzarella (though I saw an ex-Pizza Hut employee say that they used 3 cups on their large pan pizzas, 4.5 if it's a cheese pizza). Half of the cheese was put on top of the sauce, followed by diced onions and green peppers, then the other half of the cheese. I finished topping it with pepperonis. Before going into the oven, I sprayed the edge crust with a vegetable oil cooking spray. The pizza was baked for 12 minutes on the stone.

The pizza turned out great and it will be a recipe that I try again in the future. Thanks to everyone who put in effort on cloning this!

That is a great looking pizza, how did the taste compare to the real deal?

Thank you! It was very close the the original, especially the crust texture. I wish I had taken a photo of the underside, because it had that fried dough, golden-brown look and feel that is a very distinguishing feature of Pizza Hut pan pizza.

My wife recently bought me a 16" heavy duty cake pan so can someone scale this recipe up for me please (pete ). Im not good with baker percents though, so if you could use grams that would be appreciated.

I explain how to do the conversion at Reply 140 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,213.msg84184.html#msg84184. In your case, you want to use the thickness factor 0.14291 in the expanded dough calculating tool (the Thickness Factor option) along with the 16" pizza size. If you have trouble coming up with the dough formulation for your 16" pizza pan or you would like me to review your numbers, let me know.

I explain how to do the conversion at Reply 140 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,213.msg84184.html#msg84184. In your case, you want to use the thickness factor 0.14291 in the expanded dough calculating tool (the Thickness Factor option) along with the 16" pizza size. If you have trouble coming up with the dough formulation for your 16" pizza pan or you would like me to review your numbers, let me know.

Peter

Peter, I used the percents in replay 140 link above and came up with this formula but i dont know if its correct because im not sure if im supposed to use the same percents as a 14" or if somehow supposed to calculate a higher percentages? Im kinda lost when it comes to these percents. I really dont know how to calculate this.Anyway I tried that expanded dough calculator and here is the results.